Your children and/or grandchildren will think it’s cool. You will save lives because you’re implementing the safest form of mass public transit there is. You will save your city money which will make everyone at City Hall happier. Your peers will respect you for doing something different. You will have fun. You like fun, don’t...
It’s a new year, folks! Congratulations, we survived another one! My column yesterday attracted the site’s first Rabble and I don’t expect it to be the last. Among “thickslab’s” (please don’t post anonymously on this site, folks, and try to be respectful) concerns was the issue of passenger safety. I don’t mean in the sense...
I’d just like to thank everyone for the kind words and support the above article generated. I actually found out this article had landed after the fact. Myself and my partner, Gabriela, were driving home from visiting the Hungerburgbahn in Austria. I received a phone call on my cell from the Toronto radio station CFRB....
We’ve experienced a “few” extra hits here on The Gondola Project since this article came out in the Toronto Star. I know many of those new visitors may be hostile to the idea of Cable Propelled Transit, and that’s okay. All I ask is three things: a) Remember, this site is a work-in-progress. If you...
The exception to Detachable Grips are what I like to think of as Attachable Grips. This concept is best exemplified by the familiar San Francisco Cable Cars. I will not go into a long description about the technology. Instead, I’d like to point you to Joe Thompson’s Cable Car Guy website which does an excellent job...
1. Design Urban Gondolas and Cable Cars to look more like your city’s existing fleet of transit vehicles. 2. Add more seats to the vehicles. Make sure those seats are comfortable. Benches are not enough. 3. Fully integrate cable with your existing transit systems in a unified, single fare zone. No fee to transfer should...
On April 26th, 2008 unionized staff of the Toronto Transit Commission walked off the job at 12:01 am. The action occurred on a Friday night, thereby stranding late night workers, revelers and bar patrons. People were not happy. At the time, I was without a contract and was scrambling to find a way to continue...
Urban Gondolas provoke awe and that’s a good thing.Cities need more of that, so long as that awe isn’t at the expense of good ideas and sound planning. Back in the winter of 2008, I was working on a report about Cable Propelled Transit (CPT). I’d had the idea to take images of familiar landscapes...
I tend to pick on Light Rail for a reason. It’s a technology akin to the average beauty contestant. It looks good on the outside, but is kind of useless on the inside. Subways (HRT) can move hordes of people quickly and buses can move a moderate number of people cheaply, but Light Rail seems...